1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to automatic payment devices of the terminal or parking meter type made available to the public and more particularly to protecting such devices against fraudulent attack.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Being isolated and liable to contain money, these payment devices are likely to be attacked, meaning either the device itself or its communication means, and must therefore be equipped with means of dissuasion.
Generally speaking, such dissuasion means must have the functions of detecting an attack and reporting an attack.
Already known in the art are public payment terminals intended to be installed in the streets of a town and provided with means of dissuasion against attack.
Each terminal has a connection to the telephone network and means for detecting an attack.
When an attack is perpetrated against a terminal, it dials the telephone number of a monitoring center and sends it an alert signal.
These prior art terminals have a number of drawbacks.
This is because the existence of the alert means is known to fraudsters who tend to cut off communication between the terminal and the monitoring center using suitable devices such as GSM signal jamming devices.
The object of the invention is to remedy the drawbacks of the prior art by providing reliable and low-cost means of dissuasion against attacks on terminals.